As an inspection apparatus to inspect a wafer on which multiple semiconductor devices are formed, a prober has been used. The prober includes a probe card provided to face a wafer, and the probe card includes a base member having a plate shape and multiple contact probes as column-shaped contact terminals arranged on a wafer-facing surface of the base member to respectively face electrode pads or solder bumps of the semiconductor devices on the wafer (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
In the prober, the contact probes of the probe card are in contact with the electrode pads or the solder bumps of the semiconductor devices, respectively, and by applying an electric current to an electrical circuit of each semiconductor device in which the electrode pad or the solder bump is connected with each contact probe, electrical characteristics such as a conducting state of the electrical circuit are inspected.
Further, in order to improve wafer inspection efficiency, there has been developed a wafer inspection apparatus in which multiple probe cards are provided in an inspection chamber and while a wafer is transferred to a probe card by a transfer stage, semiconductor devices on the wafer can be inspected by another probe card. In this wafer inspection apparatus, multiple testers as wafer inspection interfaces are provided to face the wafer in the inspection chamber and a probe card is provided to each tester.
In the above-described wafer inspection apparatus, the probe cards need to be replaced due to abrasion of contact probes. When the probe card is replaced, a transfer robot collects the probe cards from the tester, and then, transfers a new probe card or a probe card, on which a maintenance process is completed, to the tester.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2002-022768
However, the probe card used in the above-described wafer inspection apparatus has a simple configuration in consideration of transfer within the wafer inspection apparatus. Therefore, there is a small portion that can be held by an operator, which makes it difficult for the operator to handle the probe cards. In particular, there has been recently developed a probe card that inspects multiple semiconductor devices formed on a wafer at the same time. However, since multiple contact probes are formed on such a probe card, there is almost no portion that can be held by an operator. Thus, when the operator loads the probe card into a wafer inspection apparatus, the operator may accidently contact the contact probe and bend the contact probe or may damage the contact probe in the worst case.